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Sd.Kfz. 252

1940 German armored ammunition carrier

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 23, 2026
Entity authorityQ1193764 ↗
Source-derived summary

The Leichter Gepanzerter Munitionstransportwagen (Sd. Kfz. 252) was a light armoured ammunition carrier used by Nazi Germany during World War II as early as the Battle of France in June 1940.

History

The Sd. Kfz. 252 was based on the Sd.Kfz. 250 half-track and used the same chassis. Initially built by the Demag and Wegmann firms from June through to December 1940, production shifted to Deutsche Werke from January to September 1941. 413 vehicles were manufactured, all of which were issued as ammunition resupply vehicles to Sturmartillerie batteries and saw operation on both European fronts.

As additional load capacity was required, the Sonder-Anhänger (Sd.

Editorial summary

“Sd.Kfz. 252” enters the record as 1940 German armored ammunition carrier. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what German, armored and ammunition can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1940, 1941—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its strongest next move is a source search built around German, armored and ammunition.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Sd.Kfz. 252” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, German, armored and ammunition provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1193764. The Library of Congress control number is sh2005003334. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1940 and 1941.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Sd.Kfz. 252”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Sd.Kfz. 252 primary sources, Sd.Kfz. 252 archive and German research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Sd.Kfz. 252”?
  2. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
  3. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Sd.Kfz. 252” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.